So You are Obese; There is Nothing Wrong with You

You may think there is something wrong with you. But no, actually there is nothing wrong.

We get many new women in the Venus community who quite often think there is something wrong with them because they eat when stressed, or just love food, and then became obese.

No, there is nothing wrong with you.

Of course we all love food.

At least 90% of human history was spent as the hunter-gatherer. It’s built into our genetic nature to eat when there is food. When a human senses danger or anxiety our body’s natural response is to trigger a “fight-or-flight” stress response. This increases hunger. Stress increases hunger, including the stress of lack of sleep.

In modern society we have an over abundance of food and we are less active in our daily lives. This is a bad situation all by itself, but then we add in the “fight-or-flight” stress induced in our brains during the stress of modern society and this is why we are obese. Our brain and body can’t tell the difference between modern anxiety and the threat we felt as early hunger-gatherer people in fear for our lives.

The stress and not understanding how to navigate the modern over abundance of food may be sabotaging your health. We all have to learn how to navigate the over abundance of food and reduce our stress as much as possible.

If you feel stress and hunger, the message your brain gets is “There is a problem.  I need food.  Or, there is not enough food!” Of course you likely have a house full of food, you are over weight, you are trying to diet, and the stress response in your brain can’t tell the difference. Your brain and body get the stress response and you want to eat. Of course you want to eat!

All of these things cause the stress response in our bodies:

• When we are lonely it can increase our stress.

• Our jobs cause stress, even jobs we love.

• Resentment and anger cause stress.

• Lack of sleep causes stress.

• Bad relationships cause stress.

• Excessive worry causes stress.

• Childhood trauma causes stress.

• Starting a new diet causes stress.

• Starting a new workout causes stress.

• Despair and hopelessness cause stress.

Our brains are not wired for modern times. If we were still a hunter-gather and had had the fresh moose meat available we wouldn’t say “I’m on a diet and so won’t eat the moose meat!” No, we would feast. We are wired to eat the food when it’s available, especially when stressed.

The problem is we are stressed AND there is too much food available. We are acting just as we are designed, but we have to be trained to stop because it’s a health problem.

We all have the capacity to over eat. We all love food. We can all eat more than we need.

Oh yeah, and add in the fact that many modern foods are engineered with salt, sugar, and fat to deliberately keep us coming back for more and more and more. That really does not help us does it? Some of us have to keep those engineered “bliss point” foods out of the house. There are many reasons why modern foods are sabotaging our health.

John and Brad talk about the difference between our modern society compared to the Victorian era in England. They talk about this comparison and our capacity to eat more than we need in an Uncensored Podcast “A Moment in time.”  If you are an immersion customer take a listen because it’s a fascinating topic.

Some of us might have some emotional eating issues and need professional help, if so we have Dr. Nicola Bird to give us a hand. But for the most part many of us simply need to train ourselves how to navigate a sedentary society with an over abundance of food.  We also need to learn to reduce our stress as much as we can.

We all seem to know how to diet. We all seem to know how to over eat. That is why we all yo-yo with our weight. We all have to learn how to eat the right amount or “normal” amount of food. It takes a bit of training and all of us are capable of learning how to do it.

The Venus community is where we share ideas on how to do just that. None of us have to be perfect to succeed at fat loss in our modern society. We share our trials, tribulations, eating disasters, triumphs, and victories. We cheer each other on all along the journey.

If you have not participated in our online community, come on in! It’s a warm, friendly, and special place.

We also share recipes, so here’s my version of the flour-less pancake. It’s not that I don’t eat flour, it’s just that some meals I may need to focus more on protein and less calories.

Mash the banana with a fork, whip in the egg, and cook the pancake on a grill.
Mix the yogurt, vanilla bean, and Stevia or Truvia.
Top the pancake with the vanilla yogurt topping. Use coconut yogurt if you can’t eat dairy yogurt.

PS We don’t have “good” or “bad” food lists in our community.  We are all different and everyone finds what works best for them.  I happen to follow a mostly organic style of eating which matches our Flat Belly Forever style of eating.   That is the food that works best for me and my own health, and also helps me keep my trim shape.

Remember that most of us who became over weight simply need to train ourselves how to eat the right amount of food in a modern society.  There is nothing wrong; we are merely human.

-Coach Roberta

You can find me in the online community.

If you want a Venus Premier Coach <<– Sign up here

PS You don’t have to be in a contest to get coaching.